Urban News

Hindustan Times 30.12.2009

To deal with the cash crunch, the municipal corporation might put the burden on builders and developers by increasing scrutiny fee by 135 per cent for new constructions and for structural changes in existing ones.

This additional cost would ultimately be borne by the buyers. Scrutiny fee is to be paid to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to clear the building plan and start construction.

This means that if you were paying Rs 14,000 for a 1,000 sq feet flat, you will now have to pay Rs 33,000 for the same area.

Also, scrutiny fee will be charged for the area that was earlier exempted while calculating the Floor Space Index.

For every 10 sq m, the BMC currently charges a scrutiny fee of Rs 140 for residential building plans, which will be hiked to Rs 330.

Scrutiny fee for commercial building proposals will be hiked from Rs 280 to Rs 660 for every 10 sq m and from Rs 210 to Rs 500 in case of industrial building proposals for the same area.

Yearly charges on validation of a project’s intimation of disapproval, commencement certificate and occupation Certificate will also be hiked.

The proposal will be tabled before the standing committee on Wednesday.

“We have not hiked the fee since 1995 so now we have gone for a hike,” said Ashok Shintre, chief engineer, Building and Proposals.

After the financial crisis, the civic officials were asked to find possible sources of revenue in their respective departments.

Along with a dip in the revenue from octroi, the development-planning department too faced a brunt of the financial downturn affecting the major sources of income for the municipal body.